Cruz clan still honors biggest hit: education

Astros coach Jose Cruz, left, shows a little fatherly affection to his son, San Francisco Giants right fielder Jose Cruz Jr., right, prior to their game in San Francisco in April 2003. The younger Cruz competed at Rice but left after his junior year for the majors. He and his brother Jose Enrique received their degrees from Rice on Saturday. (Eric Risberg / Associated Press)

At a time many Puerto Ricans abandoned education early in life to support their families, Carmelo Vazquez often reminded his daughter Zoraida that education would be the greatest inheritance he could leave her.

Zoraida Cruz repeated that sentiment often to her three children — Jose “Cheito” Cruz Jr., Shakira and Jose Enrique Cruz.

Former Astros outfielder Jose Cruz secured the family’s legacy long ago as one of the top baseball figures in his native Puerto Rico and in his adopted hometown of Houston. While her husband accumulated hits and RBIs, Zoraida helped secure their cherished inheritance.

‘The best inheritance’

Cheito and Jose Enriquez showcased their baseball prowess at Bellaire and Rice, but baseball always fell behind education for Zoraida. Eighteen years after Cheito left Rice to sign with the Mariners and 10 years after Jose Enrique left the Owls to sign with the Yankees, the siblings graduated from Rice with sports management degrees Saturday.

“Education is the best inheritance that you can leave for your children,” Zoraida Cruz said. “He wouldn’t let us work because if we worked we wouldn’t finish school. That’s the same thing I wanted to give my children.

“A lot of years have passed, but they’ve finally graduated from college. And it’s not any college. It’s Rice University. It’s a very important, elite university. We’re very happy and very proud.”

Jose Enrique, 31, had multiple chances to sign a professional contract before eventually leaving Rice after his junior year. He was drafted by the Cubs in the 49th round of 2000 draft after his senior season at Bellaire. He was picked again in the 13th round by the Reds as a sophomore at Rice in 2002.

He stuck around for his junior year and helped Rice win the 2003 College World Series before signing with the New York Mets after he was picked in the 14th round that June.

Cheito was picked in the 15th round by the Braves out of Bellaire High School. He spurned the Braves to become arguably Rice’s first major signee for coach Wayne Graham. The three-time All-American left Rice as a junior after he was the third overall pick in the 1995 draft.

“Fortunately things happened in my life that steered me from doing it sooner,” Cheito said. “I had to figure out how to finish school because it was ingrained in us to finish school. It was very important to finish college.

“Nowadays a college diploma is what a high school diploma was 30 years ago. Getting it at Rice and being able to play baseball is more fulfilling.”

Jose Enrique ended his baseball career at Class AA Binghamton with the Mets’ organization in 2007. A year later, Cheito finished his 12-year major league career when he was released by the Astros in June 2008.

“For my parents I think it means a great deal,” Jose Enrique said. “They get a two-for-one special deal on graduation parties. For me, honestly, I think it’s a great present for my mom for Mother’s Day. The fact that she has two sons graduating from Rice and walking on the same day is special.”

Cheito and his wife have three children — Trei 14, Antonio, 13, and Alisia, 11.

Cheito, who lives in Miami near Astros bench coach Eduardo Perez, took many of his final classes at the University of Miami.

“It’s difficult to do what he’s done, making it big in the big leagues and then going back to graduate,” Perez said. “He’s graduating the same day as his brother also. I think they have to be very proud. It’s a tight-knit family.

Rice ‘recruiter’

“To see what they’ve done to be a role model to their children, it just shows the determination that he has and the value of life that he carries with himself and with his family.”

Cheito jokes he is counseling Trei, an eighth-grader, on the values of attending Rice. Cheito treats each family visit to Rice as a recruiting pitch for his kid.

Cheito has taught his children the Rice traditions. He’s eager for them to see him walk through the Sallyport archway outside of the quad as a graduate. Although it has been 20 years, Cruz remembers his matriculation orientation at Rice as though it were yesterday.

As Cheito has told his children, each student walks through Sallyport on the Sunday night of orientation, but you’re discouraged from walking out of the quad through the Sallyport until you graduate because it’s considered bad luck.

“You have to walk out to show you’ve completed the full circle,” Cheito said. “I want to show my kids that I’ve completed the full circle at Rice.”

Jose Cruz, 65, ended his formal education after he graduated from high school in Puerto Rico. He signed with the St. Louis Cardinals and made his major league debut in 1970. He collected 2,251 hits and 1,077 RBIs, mostly with the Astros while setting many franchise records that were broken by Craig Biggio.

‘A great honor’

Although Jose Cruz’s No. 25 has been retired by the Astros, he isn’t nearly as proud of his 19-year baseball career as he is of his daughter Shakira’s accounting degree from Texas A&M University and her Juris Doctorate from South Texas College of Law. Now, he can add Cheito and Jose Enrique along with Zoraida as college graduates in the house.

“The whole family is very happy for them,” Cruz said. “The mom was always on top of them. She wouldn’t let them play baseball until their schoolwork was done.”

It’s much later than they expected, but Cheito and Jose Enrique have joined Shakira and Zoraida among the college graduates in the family.

“It’s a great honor for all of us,” Zoraida said. “It’s an inheritance that I wanted to give them. This is the inheritance that Zoraida Vazquez de Jesus has given them. I’m very honored because they’ve given me this treat, but in the long run they are feeling the same satisfaction because this is a treat for them too.”